The Monthly Retail Social Juice Index Spotlight: Bebe, Foot Locker and 1-800-Flowers.com

A scroll through the Facebook Timelines of Bebe, Foot Locker and 1-800-Flowers.com reveals a common trait: each anchors its content with repeating themes and formats.

Fashion retailer Bebe has over 3.1 million fans on Facebook and typically posts twice per day.

It's not uncommon for the brand's posts to attract 10,000 likes to 30,000 likes, top 1,000 shares and earn hundreds of comments. What makes Bebe unique on Facebook? It posts about its products all the time while maintaining high engagement scores on Media Logic's Retail Social Juice Index (RSJI).

In fact, with few exceptions, all of the brand's posts resemble catalog pitches and rarely stray from a very specific formula. The typical Bebe post uses the following formula:

• opens with an attention grabber in all caps (e.g., "3 PERFECT VALENTINE'S DAY OUTFITS");
• follows with descriptive copy that pulls you into the product's story (e.g., "Still searching for the perfect V-Day look? Whether you're going on a hot date, a casual outing or a romantic getaway, we've got you covered from head to toe!");
• asks a question (e.g., "Which look are you wearing?");
• concludes with links for shopping (e.g., "Shop Valentine's Day Looks"); and
• presents a professionally shot photo or spread (in the case of its Jan. 28 post in this example, a single model showing off three very different outfits).

One of the only ways Bebe mixes it up on Facebook is by changing the product focus post to post. It jumps from shoes to little black dresses to accessories.

Like Bebe, Foot Locker has a large fan base (4.5 million) and posts a couple times per day, always relying on mainstay posts. However, instead of having a single formula, Foot Locker works with several themes at once.

Currently, the brand is achieving high engagement scores by repeating the following content series:

• "Tuesday Photo of the Day" (user-generated content from Instagram tagged with #kickstagram and #cruzdaytuesday and curated by Foot Locker's social media team);
• "MJ Mondays" (anything Michael Jordan);
• celebratory sports news (e.g., a Jan. 17 congratulations to Lebron James for being the youngest player to reach specific milestones; a Jan. 20 post about the recently decided Super Bowl matchup); and
• products (e.g., new releases and featured collections).
  #INLINE-CHART#

While it may not be surprising that the Michael Jordan posts can earn over 45,000 likes, even a Jan. 23 brand post featuring new socks earned over 30,000 (really!) likes, as well as 738 shares and more than 1,600 comments.

It's likely that Bebe and Foot Locker have perfected these approaches over time, based on what resonates with fans and what doesn't. The next brand in this month's RSJI spotlight, 1-800-Flowers.com (667,000 fans), may still be figuring that out.

Valentine's Day draws attention to flower retailers, and so it makes sense that the brand scored big on our social engagement index over the last month. It began urging consumers to think about the holiday as early as Jan. 16 with this post: "Valentine's Day is less than a month away! Check out our Valentine's Day preview."

Holiday excitement coupled with heightened customer service activity (the good, the bad and the ugly) boosted engagement for 1-800-Flowers.com.

From there, it was 1-800-Flowers.com's core posts — photos of gorgeous floral bouquets with effective captions — that drove its primary engagement. That sweet spot for the brand delivers thousands of likes, shares and comments time and time again. For example, its Feb. 9 post read, "TELL US how many Valentine's days have you spent with your honey! Our Blooming Love bouquet lets your Valentine know how your love grows each and every year." Together with a beautiful photograph, the post earned 7,083 likes, 1,339 shares and 354 comments.

Unlike Bebe and Foot Locker, which keep tight focus on proven mainstays, 1-800-Flowers.com interrupts its rhythm with content that may not be the right fit for the brand. Although a bit of diversity is good for most retailers (Bebe is unique in getting away with persistent, formulaic product posts), every post must make sense for your brand. Some of 1-800-Flowers.com's current threads (like its promos for "Monday Mornings," a prime-time medical drama) don't have clear enough tie-ins for the brand's fans, as evidenced by extremely low engagement.

Takeaways from this month's RSJI spotlight include the following:

• Question all advice … even this. Both Bebe and Foot Locker work in step with traditional wisdom about engagement on Facebook: use photos, ask questions and include calls to action. But both also do a great deal of "rule" breaking. Bebe's posts, for example, contain lots of text and are overly repetitive. But guess what? They're successful. What should you do? Experiment. Find out what works in your unique case and amplify it.
• Promotions should be part of your overall branded Facebook strategy. Promotions (e.g., contests, giveaways and sweepstakes) as well as promotional partnerships with vendors or media partners shouldn't seem out of place in your social stream. 1-800-Flowers.com's sports-inspired "WOW Moment of the Day Sweepstakes" with ESPN Radio may have been designed to appeal to a male broadcast audience ahead of Valentine's Day, but it didn't appeal to fans on Facebook. These posts typically earned only 200 likes to 300 likes, probably because they strayed too far from the brand's sweet spot. Want to do promotions? Customize content so that it closely matches both your brand and your specific audience, which may vary platform to platform.
• Fine-tune your strategy as you go along. Who doesn't appreciate some snark? Who doesn't get a good laugh out of some e-cards? 1-800-Flowers.com's fans, that's who. Think about why: the retailer is about feeling good. It's about encouraging people, supporting people and showing affection. 1-800-Flowers.com deserves kudos for trying e-cards, but the brand only gets real props when they're phased out (hopefully).

Media Logic's RSJI has been measuring social engagement for hundreds of national retailers since November 2011.

Carolee Sherwood is the conversation manager at Media Logic. Carolee can be reached at csherwood@mlinc.com.